The judge who ruled on the Peter Slipper sexual harassment case has made a scathing assessment of James Ashby's solicitor, accusing him of professional misconduct for making "scandalous and irrelevant" allegations under privilege.

Federal Court Justice Steve Rares said Michael Harmer, of the workplace law firm Harmers Lawyers, had deliberately set out to damage Mr Slipper's reputation.

Justice Rares said allegations by Mr Harmer into the possible misuse of Cabcharges, which were untested and ultimately abandoned, were designed to imply that Mr Slipper had misused Commonwealth funds.

He described Mr Harmer's assertion that Mr Ashby intended to report the matter to police as calculated to exacerbate the damage.

"A lawyer cannot open a case in court by making statements that may have ruinous consequences to the person attacked that the lawyer cannot substantiate or justify by evidence," Justice Rares said.

"Mr Harmer was aware how damaging the making of each of the 2003 and Cabcharge allegations as a whole would be to Mr Slipper and his reputation.

"As he appreciated, this would be a 'high profile workplace case' that would attract publicity about Mr Slipper who was a 'high profile respondent' .

"The deployment by Mr Harmer in the originating application of the scandalous and irrelevant 2003 allegations and the assertion that Mr Ashby intended to report the Cabcharge allegations to the police, had no legitimate forensic purpose.

"No lawyer acting responsibly could have included either of those matters ... Their inclusion made the originating application an abuse of the process of the Court."

Mr Ashby's legal team ultimately abandoned their allegations about the Cabcharges and the 2003 incident, which apparently involved a consensual sexual encounter between Mr Slipper and a young man on his staff.

Justice Rares said it was difficult to avoid the conclusion that Mr Harmer only said that Mr Ashby had planned to report the Cabcharge matter to the police because it gave them the opportunity to make a more serious attack on Mr Slipper.

"That attack, in the form it was made, was a misuse of Mr Harmer's privilege as a lawyer. The use of the court's process to make that attack in that form was an abuse of process."

Mr Harmer told the court that he did not commence proceedings in order to gain publicity and damage Mr Slipper’s reputation.

But Justice Rares said he did not accept his evidence.

Mr Harmer was also pursued by the Australian Tax Office earlier this year for failing to pay $1.25 million in income tax and interest. The Supreme Court ordered him to repay $750,000, which he agreed to pay in monthly instalments of $30,000. He said the dispute had arisen over tax deductions that he claimed to invest in building retirement villages.

In both the David Jones and PwC cases, and in representing Mr Ashby, Mr Harmer hired the spin doctor Anthony McClellan to take over the media strategy.

McClellan issued a statement on Wednesday that Mr Harmer was ‘‘shocked and disappointed’’ by the court’s decision.

"We will argue strongly on appeal that the conclusions in his Honour's judgment made about our conduct of the case are simply not justified by the evidence.

"Neither myself, nor this firm, are part of any conspiracy.

"Harmers Workplace Lawyers has over many years assisted thousands of individual,corporate and union clients to access justice.

"We have assisted James Ashby in that same way, as an individual who could not otherwise afford to run very expensive litigation in our courts. This is the sole reason we took on James Ashby's case.

"As a firm, we will be examining all avenues to have this decision, and its comments, overturned through due judicial process."

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/ashbys-sexcase-specialist-accused-of-scandalous-misconduct-20121212-2b96h.html